Want To Make Mobile Money? Make Games, Or Open Musical Boxes

As major game developers fret about the challenge of cheap mobile games undercutting the $60 boxed products, mobile developers should be making games if they want to make money, according to a report by research firm Canalys.

Image via CrunchBase

Reviewing the information from the first 20 days of November, gathered by their App Interrogator service, Canalys found that the distribution of wealth in app development was far from equal. Just as mobile games have their "whales", who pump disproportionate amounts into free-to-play mobile games, the whales of the mobile industry are sucking much of the money out. Across the Apple App Store and Google Play store in the US, 25 developers made half of the app revenue made - a total of $60 million. And, of those 25 developers, 24 were game developers.

This is obviously something of a problem for app developers who are not making games (although top 25 is a pretty lofty goal, and multi-platform plays like Evernote would provide a calculation challenge). Tim Shepherd, Canalyst Senior Analyst, commented:

With top game developers’ content so prevalent in the stores, it can be hard for other good quality apps to get the attention they deserve. Developers of other kinds of apps need to consider how to promote them.

Runners and riders

I asked Shepherd for some more particulars, and he broke out some findings:

Top 5 developers (aggregated across US Apple App Store and Play Store)

1. Zynga

2. Electronic Arts

3. Mobage

4. Supercell

5. TeamLava

Zynga have an astonishing and somewhat terrifying 15 entries in the top 300. Note the absence of Rovio, whose Angry Birds owes its dominance in part to a strong free offering.

The top 5 apps in the Apple App Store show the one exception to the dominance of gaming when it comes to mobile monetization:

1. Clash of Clans, Supercell

2. Kingdoms of Camelot: Battle for the North, Kabam

3. Pandora Radio, Pandora

4. The Simpsons: Tapped Out, Electronic Arts

5. Rage of Bahamut, Mobage

Note Pandora - which successfully monetizes through a strong product in a highly meaningful area (music), and by having such a broad appeal that even a low conversion rate represents large numbers of paying customers. Not for nothing was Pandora heavily promoted as a launch app for Windows 8. Pandora reported mobile revenues of $73.9 million in its Q3 earnings report on 4 December - 60% of its total sales.